The day in federal parliament

* The argy-bargy over horse-trading of gun laws for Senate votes refuses to go away.

WHAT’S MAKING NEWS

* The Turnbull government fears the mid-year budget update could be the catalyst for Australia losing its AAA rating.

* The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spent an estimated $215,000 or more sending nearly two dozen senior bureaucrats from Canberra to Paris to attend an in-house talkfest about ways to save money.

* Australia’s top financial regulator has dismissed as self-serving arguments by the big four banks that they can’t afford to offer so-called "tracker mortgages" whose rates would automatically rise and fall in line with the Reserve Bank cash rate.

* Tony Abbott maintains he never made a deal with a crossbench senator to change gun laws, insisting it was his government that "stopped the guns".

* The Australian Bureau of Statistics has acknowledged it made a number of poor judgments in the lead-up to this year’s bungled census.

* The head of Treasury has delivered an upbeat appraisal of the Australian economy, but warns productivity must increase if living standards are to improve.

* Gay MP Tim Wilson believes people in Ireland who lived through a referendum on same-sex marriage wouldn’t voluntarily do it again, except for the outcome.

* What the coalition wants to spin: Law-abiding work places, law-abiding unions and employer organisations are vital for our economy. We cannot stand idly by while militant unions continue their thuggery and bully-boy tactics, continue standing over rank-and-file members, of other unions, and contractors.

* What Labor wants to pursue: Does the prime minister want the import ban on the seven-round Adler shotgun to be permanent or should we just direct the question to the leader of the Nationals?

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING

"No deals from me. No deals from my office. No deal." – An insistent former PM Tony Abbott on claims a deal was done on gun laws to secure David Leyonhjelm’s vote in the Senate.